I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to packaging techniques and more particularly to shipping containers. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a one-piece stackable shipping container with integral dunnage.
II. Discussion of the Problem
The packing and shipping of articles, particularly fragile ones, has always presented certain difficulties, including the danger of breaking, scraping, chipping or otherwise damaging the articles. Accordingly, special precautions have been taken to protect them. Materials are used to support and cushion articles being shipped in order to prevent damage. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,281,657 discloses a package that protects flat articles against abrasion by firmly holding the articles in the package so that no rubbing takes place. As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,005,967 depicts a package in which an article is immobilized by use of corrugated board and filler material. In yet another example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,209 shows how foam plastic can be used to immobilize and cushion the article.
In terms of preventing breakage such fillers have been successful, but not without cost in other ways. Often when shipped articles are unpacked and the packaging is discarded, the fillers are thrown out into the environment, producing costs in cleaning up the environment, producing landfills, and operating incineration systems with complex filtration methods for reducing effluent emissions.
There are those skilled in the art who have become particularly aware of environmental concerns, and have reduced the assaults on the environment by recycling dunnage. But recycling causes other problems. One problem is that composite dunnage, such as foam products attached to corrugated fiberboard sheets or plastic products of different chemical makeup, requires that the constituent parts that are not chemically the same to be separated for different recycling treatments. Inasmuch as composite products are usually attached together by use of adhesives or stapling items, such constituent parts are hard to separate as chemically different parts. That is why composite items that are not separable from other recyclable items are often destroyed by methods having the environmental consequences sought to be avoided.
In the light of the above, a need exists in the art for means and methods allowing for the non-trivial disposing of shipping containers and the dunnage therein.